This invention relates generally to fingertip protectors and thimbles and specifically to an elastomeric thimble designed for enhanced comfort and control of a sewing needle.
It is well known in the art that hand sewing can require a considerable amount of repetitive force to be applied to a sewing needle by a finger in order to stitch fabric. Finger protective devices and thimbles have long been used for their ability to prevent injury to the fingers during the stitching operation and the prior art contains numerous examples. Among the earliest examples of such thimbles are of a somewhat truncated conical shaped metal cap designed to slip over and be adhered to the end of the sewing digit by frictional means. The top and sides of the thimble are dimpled to receive the end of the needle and prevent slippage as force is applied. Such thimbles are in use even today.
The lack of comfort in rigid thimbles has long been a concern as evidenced by Pat. No. 837,896 dated Dec. 4, 1906 to Bourne. Therein is described a custom thimble shaped by means of forming a hard material in a cast taken from the user""s finger. Naturally such a thimble would be prohibitively expensive and impractical to produce on a large scale basis.
With advances in plastic technology, the conical shaped thimbles have been successfully molded from rigid plastics as described in Pat. No. D270,966 dated Oct. 18, 1983 to Lynn. The design has been further altered to provide an opening for the fingernail. However, the rigidity of these thimbles can still cause pressure points on the finger with the additional disadvantage of premature wear of the plastic material therein utilized.
The comfort issue with truncated conical metal thimbles is addressed by Lee in U.S. Pat. No. 3,531,029, dated Sep. 29, 1970. The wraparound thimble therein described deals mainly with comfort as affected by thimble size. It does not adequately solve the problem of mismatch in shape between a finger and a thimble.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,134 dated Jul. 16, 1980 to Joy describes a flexible material to conform to the finger, with a rigid insert or inserts to engage a needle. These thimbles are expensive to manufacture and the material covering the reinforcing plate wears through prematurely, causing the needle to slip against the plate and even injure the finger through the fingernail opening. The protective plate is described as being oval shaped, greatly restricting manufacturing and design considerations.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,222 dated Nov. 28, 1978 to Adams describes an elastomeric thimble for comfort with a head portion at least twice the thickness of the body. The head totally encapsulates the tip of the finger to protect it from needle contact. For the head to be puncture resistant it will also be too hard to conform to finger shape variations from user to user, generally being too loose or producing pressure points on the finger tip. The additional reinforcement is described as being interposed in the forward portion of the head, thus increasing design complexity and manufacturing cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,437, dated Jul. 31, 1990 to Calvert sets forth another pliable material thimble with a rigid insert. This thimble is complicated and expensive to manufacture. It also lacks comfort as the reinforcement, being planar, will not conform to the shape of any finger.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,854 dated Aug. 8, 2000, Apple teaches a concept employing an adhesive backed disk. The design suffers from limited contact area and is primarily meant to protect a finger from inadvertent pricks from a needle. It is not conducive to driving a needle through fabric as the needle may slip off the disk and cause injury to the unprotected portion of the finger.
It is a goal of the present invention to overcome the limitations of the prior art, whether manifested in a rigid metal, ceramic, or plastic thimble, a rigidly reinforced flexible protective device, or a self adhering pad.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) to provide a finger protective device which effectively protects the finger from injury while applying force to a needle.
(b) to provide a finger protective device which is well suited to various types and techniques of needlework.
(c) to provide a finger protective device which resists wear and abrasion from repeated contact with a needle.
(d) to provide a finger protective device which is flexible enough to conform to irregularities and deviations from the average finger shape, resulting in a comfortable fit.
(e) to provide a finger protective device which is light weight.
f) to provide a finger protective device which is inexpensive to manufacture.
(g) to provide a finger protective device which is aesthetically pleasing.
Further objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing drawings and description.